Karma glared at him with the full weight of her wrath. “Just don’t, Thorn. This is serious. He’s been slipping out at night and?—”
“He’s a grown man, Karma. Almost thirty. I doubt he’s slipping out to meet his friends.”
“Have you met him? He might look like a grown man, but he has the instincts of a five-year-old! I don’t like the people he’s hanging out with. They’re trouble.”
Could they really be worse than his father, and the demons Thorn called friends?
Trying not to say that out loud, Thorn entered her house so that the people on the street would no longer have a free show. “Are you talking about Val and Annabelle?”
Karma locked the door and gave him a hot, furious glare. “My niece and nephew aren’t the problem … much. Annabelle could be a little more circumspect, but given her mother and father, she’s remarkably stable.”
She wasn’t wrong. Annabelle and her brother, Valerian, were the children of Karma’s sister, Tabitha, and the ex-Dark-Hunter, Valerius Magnus.
They and their cousins had been virtually inseparable since they were born and could get into more than their fair share of trouble. Thorn suspected it had a lot to do with the Devereaux blood mixing with whatever Artemis did to create a Dark-Hunter.
Just a bad combination all around.
“He’s not hanging out with his cousins, Thorn. Not since he found out about you.”
Oh …
That made his blood run cold as it opened the door to a much lower class of entities the boy could be seeking out to befriend. “Then who?”
“Demons.”
Like father, like son. Shit. He dreaded the next question, but he needed clarity. “What do you mean?”
“It started with them hanging out at Club Charonte and that other place where demons gather. Next thing I knew, he wasn’t coming home. I don’t know what they’re doing. But I’m worried.”
She had every right to be. While E.T. was a good kid, he had enough of Thorn’s blood in him to make him a target, especially for those like Paimon who wanted to control him.
“Is he at work?”
“He quit his job two weeks ago. Don’t get me started on that!”
Thorn ground his teeth. “What’s he been doing?”
“That’s what I’m saying. He hasn’t been doing anything. Just hiding out in his room or off with who knows what until all hours of the day and night. Being evasive every time I ask him where he is or where he’s going. Who he’s meeting with. He needs his father.”
The boy obvioudly needed something. Maybe a butt kicking might be the best course.
“All right. I’ll take care of it.”
“Thank you.” She gave him a tight hug. “And don’t kill him. I have earned that privilege.”
Snorting at her humor, he stepped away from her. “You’re welcome.” And with that, Thorn left her alone in her house so that he could track down their errant child and see what E.T. had gotten himself into.
Simi left the dance floor so that she could head to the bar and get something to drink. Dancing always made her thirsty.
Raising her hand, she motioned the green-and-yellow Charonte over to her and did her best not to laugh at the humans who all assumed their waiter was wearing a costume and makeup.
If they only knew …
It was why she loved her bro-bro’s bar so much. Here, she could let her hornays out and even her wings and no one thought anything about it. The humans just thought it was a theme.
Theme demon.
Simi’s favorite.
